SkyWest pilot takes jarring ride in stolen plane

This undated image provided by the Colorado Springs Police Department on Tuesday, July 17, 2012 shows Brian Joseph Hedglin. The SkyWest Airlines employee wanted in a Colorado murder attempted to steal a passenger plane from a small southern Utah airport then shot himself in the head after crashing the aircraft in a nearby parking lot, officials said Tuesday. Hedglin was wanted in connection with the death of Christina Cornejo, 39, in Colorado Springs. Her body was found Friday by police doing a welfare check at the request of her family. Her death has been ruled a homicide. (AP Photo/Colorado Springs Police Department)
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This undated image provided by the Colorado Springs Police Department on Tuesday, July 17, 2012 shows Brian Joseph Hedglin. The SkyWest Airlines employee wanted in a Colorado murder attempted to steal a passenger plane from a small southern Utah airport then shot himself in the head after crashing the aircraft in a nearby parking lot, officials said Tuesday. Hedglin was wanted in connection with the death of Christina Cornejo, 39, in Colorado Springs. Her body was found Friday by police doing a welfare check at the request of her family. Her death has been ruled a homicide. (AP Photo/Colorado Springs Police Department)
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Even though planes can be equipped with or without locking mechanisms, she said training and experience would be needed to operate one.

"An average person wouldn't be able to walk up and start one up," she said.

The incident has raised overall concerns that the nation's airports may not be as safe as they should be.

The Transportation Security Administration doesn't require airports to maintain full-time surveillance of their perimeter fences, leaving airport security largely in the hands of individual facilities. St. George airport officials have said the small facility about 120 miles northeast of Las Vegas meets all federal security guidelines.

Van Fleet said just one officer provides security for the airport as it is closed through the night until 6 a.m. the next morning when TSA officials and others return. He said his agency would be discussing whether additional security measures need to be added but noted "this was a very determined person."

TSA spokesman Dave Castelveter said the agency was involved in the investigation, but declined to discuss specific security protocols, including how a plane is supposed to be secured when it is out of service, emphasizing that each airport has different security needs.

"Aviation security is not a one size fits all process," Castelveter said.

Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation Security, said the Utah incident "shows major security weaknesses at our airports that need to be addressed."

"We have been pushing TSA to do a much better job overall of working with its partners, including airport authorities, to improve security," Rogers said in a statement Wednesday. "American taxpayers deserve better and have a right to be outraged at this."

One aviation security expert said it might be time to revisit protocols aimed at securing airport perimeters.

"Maybe we need to implement some more levels of perimeter security because any type of security incident like this is a lesson to both the good guys and the bad guys. They read the papers just as much as we do," said Jeff Price, an aviation professor at the Metropolitan State University of Denver and former assistant security director at Denver International Airport.

Hedglin was wanted in the death of his of his girlfriend and fellow Colorado National Guard member, Christina Cornejo, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Her body was found July 13. Authorities said she had been stabbed multiple times. Hedglin was the key suspect but had not been charged.

The Gazette of Colorado Springs, citing court records, reported Hedglin dated Cornejo for four years and was arrested in March after he was accused of harassing her.

The records show that a restraining order was issued against Hedglin, and he was set for trial in August. He was released on $10,000 bond.

Attorney Steven Rodemer, who represented Hedglin in that case, said he was facing misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief, theft and harassment.

Hedglin was a part-time soldier who worked as a cook in the Colorado National Guard.

Cornejo was a full-time soldier who served in the Colorado Army National Guard's 100th Missile Defense Brigade in Colorado Springs. She enlisted in June 2006, became a second lieutenant last year and was named a distinguished honor graduate in two training programs. She had recently begun training as a current operations officer.

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Associated Press writers Holbrook Mohr in Jackson, Miss., and Colleen Slevin and Dan Elliott in Denver contributed to this report.